Inside Lacrosse March Issue: Lasagna: Drug Use Survey a Wakeup Call

Imagine seeing a bright glow down the highway. As you draw closer you realize it’s a burning car. You slow down, get near enough to see Mom unconscious, forehead resting on the steering wheel. There are two small boys in the backseat, alive and wailing for help.

Do you drive by?

Of course not. Empathy, compassion and human instincts to save lives compel each of us stop and do everything in our power to help.

And yet, how did we react recently when we read Bloomberg’s late January story announcing that men’s lacrosse now leads all NCAA sports in illicit drug use (amphetamines, cocaine, anabolic steroids, marijuana and narcotics) and is a close second in alcohol highest consumption? Outside of a few InsideLacrosse.com posts on the survey, preseason preparation seemed to bury this disturbing information.

Car crashes fascinate. They also make us feel sad and impotent.

Some of us questioned the statistical validity of this recent NCAA survey. We employed socio-economic based sport comparison theories to rationalize, and minimize the bad news.

We kept driving.

Are the stats that place lacrosse players at the top of the drug/alcohol self-inflicted wound pyramid reflective of larger cultural trends? They are. Do ALL college students drink too much too often? Most do.

But in the seven years since the NCAA’s last study, the percentage of men’s lacrosse players that anonymously reported “frequent alcohol use” jumped from 89.4% to 95% (topped only by ice hockey’s 95.5%). For marijuana, cocaine and amphetamines use, our sport’s men “led by a wide margin.”

Even if one allows for analytical imperfection, individual over and under reporting, this data causes grave concern. In 2005, the NCAA’s Myles Brand announced, “Lacrosse has a problem.”

Since then, lacrosse lives and families have been devastated by loss connected to drug and alcohol abuse. Warren Kimber IV, Drew Pfarr and Kevin Glenz were bright lights extinguished too soon. We are learning now if drugs and alcohol contributed to fatal decisions made by Yeardley Love’s accused killer.

Should we view these as random, unrelated tragedies or the aching confirmation of an emergency too critical to ignore? Do people with influence care enough to tackle this immense, complex, dark side of the heritage of our game?

Seven years ago, John Underwood accepted an invitation from Johns Hopkins AD Tom Calder to address Blue Jay athletes. Dave Pietramala, then five years into his efforts to change attitudes and behaviors of JHU players, mandated that his charges attend, listen and learn. Underwood, founder of the American Athletic Institute, presented his powerfully persuasive research on “Pure Performance.” He detailed the effects of alcohol and marijuana on training, recovery and performance of elite athletes.

Coach Pietramala used Underwood’s information to challenge his players. “How Much More?” he asked them, would they accomplish if they incorporated informed lifestyle choices into their training regimen? That spring, Hopkins won their first NCAA title since 1987. Coincidence?

Pietramala acknowledges that, “We talk constantly about being responsible in all regards, that doing the right thing is a conscious choice.” Whether leaving the weight room immaculate or understanding the difference between “having fun and being an ass,” Pietramala holds the members of JHU’s most visible team to the highest standards. He leaves no gray area. Pietramala wants youngsters who want to be positive role models in the most demanding spotlight.

He allows them to be college students on Saturday night, but there are serious consequences for the player who places his immediate gratification ahead of the good of the program.

“The last voice they hear Friday night before they leave the locker room is mine,” he says. “The last voice they hear after a Saturday game is mine. We tell them to drink 64 ounces of water every Sunday.” He knows that no one is perfect. He also knows that his vigilance has eliminated “Monday morning phone calls,” a significant change that took years to achieve.

Underwood agrees that a coach’s battle against today’s “personalism” (“do it your way”) is never done. “The worse the calamities, the more society trivializes it,” Underwood finds. His mission takes him on “100 flights a year” to high schools, colleges, professional teams and Olympic training centers. He conveys messages of a drinking culture that sees American boys and girls commencing at 11.9 and 13.1 years old, respectively. By age 15 a pattern of use emerges with five drinking episodes in 30 days.

By college, 10-14 drinking experiences in 30 days becomes the norm. Many exceptional athletes excel by taking risks. They are, by nature, boundary pushers. Exploring extremes within this general culture of excessive use leads athletes to recurring patterns of overindulgence. “The problem,” says Underwood, “is athletes are not using alcohol and other drugs. They are abusing them!”

We ignore the latest NCAA data at the peril of kids playing our sport. “We have lost control of athlete lifestyle,” Underwood says, “and rationalized somehow that such behavior comes with the mentality of the sport.”

For 12 years, Underwood’s solutions have started with detailed delivery of information. He works to reach resistant athletes and coaches alike by dramatically demonstrating the negative impacts of alcohol and recreational drug use on performance. The metabolic strain from one night of binge drinking undoes two weeks of diligent training.

Processing excess alcohol compromises the liver’s ability to produce hormones central to muscle growth and recovery. Chronic pot use sends an athlete’s brain into overcompensating re-routing of impulses when faced with the simplest, neuro-muscular task. Some listeners will decide their four-year career is precious and change habits, eager to explore their full potential. Others won’t.

Underwood encourages young lacrosse players to stop, “following the lead of rock star role models. When writing the story of your life as an athlete, never give someone else the pen!”

Similarly he challenges our sport’s leaders to take responsibility. Invite John to be a keynote speaker at our conventions.

Do we stop or keep driving?

This article appears in the March issue of Inside Lacrosse Magazine. To subscribe, or order back issues and other products, click here.